London vinyl forger behind the biggest fake records operation ever seen in the UK gets 3.5 years in prison

A man from west London has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for running the largest illegal vinyl operation in British history. Rehan Ahmed, 40, from Southall, made more than £2.74 million (around $3.6 million) between 2017 and 2024 by producing and selling counterfeit LPs. The Inner London Crown Court handed down the verdict on Friday 18 April. Judge Darren Reed imposed two years and eight months for copyright infringement and three years and six months for acquiring and using criminal proceeds, with both sentences to be served concurrently.

Ahmed operated out of a premises in Acton, also in west London, trading under the names Phoenix of Vinyl and Paragon Music. From that location he supplied fake LPs to record shops and sold them directly to consumers through online platforms such as Discogs and eBay. According to The Guardian, he had already received a cease and desist notice in 2017 but simply ignored it. The case was reported to police by the BPI, the UK's trade body for the recorded music industry.

In February 2024, officers from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit raided the premises after the BPI placed a test order and found evidence of counterfeiting. During the raid, 2,791 finished LPs were seized. The Guardian reported that around 15,000 records in total were found on the site. Officers also discovered four vinyl presses, each around seventy years old, along with 3,000 metal stampers and thousands of sleeves and centre labels. Record labels that later assessed the seized material confirmed that every single copy infringed copyright, with the rights of 108 artists having been violated in total. The fakes included LPs by Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay, The Beatles, Ed Sheeran, Adele, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Drake, Kanye West and Bad Bunny, with a combined estimated street value of around one million pounds.

The City of London Police described it as a long running, highly organised and entirely unlicensed production operation and stated that it represents the largest seizure of its kind ever made in the United Kingdom. Detective Constable Daryl Fryatt of PIPCU said: "Rehan Ahmed exploited artists and the wider music industry, taking advantage of the resurgence in vinyl records for his own gain. We will continue to pursue criminals who target the creative industries and bring them to justice when they do." Peter Ratcliffe, Director of Content Protection at the BPI, added: "With music on physical formats enjoying a resurgence, the market in counterfeit records has unfortunately also been growing as criminals cash in at the expense of creators and fans."

This case is not an isolated incident. Back in April, a separate PIPCU operation in Luton resulted in the seizure of 6,498 counterfeit LPs with an estimated retail value of nearly £260,000. Over the past two years, the BPI has been involved in 43 search operations targeting fake vinyl and CDs, leading to the seizure of around 600,000 items with a combined street value of up to £8 million. Ratcliffe confirmed that at least ten further investigations into illegal vinyl operations are currently ongoing.

The case highlights the darker side of the vinyl revival. In the UK, vinyl sales grew by 13.3 percent year on year in 2025 to reach 7.6 million copies, marking an eighteenth consecutive year of growth. Revenue from vinyl increased by nearly 20 percent to £174.7 million, the highest annual total in more than three decades. For Dutch music fans who shop for secondhand or rare LPs through international platforms, this case serves as a reminder of how important it is to check the provenance of records bought through online marketplaces.